Reflection Roundup: Trust Is the Antidote to Panic
Each week we gather news stories, notable pieces, and other important items for Christian leaders today. As always, listening broadly draws together differing perspectives from which we can learn but may not concur. Here are 10 things worth sharing this week.
1. “Sabbatical is about shutting down parts of your life to awaken other parts that have fallen asleep.” In the “How to Take Time for Spiritual Renewal” episode of the Onto Somethin’ podcast, Zane Witcher, associate preaching and university minister at the Highland Church in Abilene, describes the seven big commitments he explored during a recent sabbatical. Witcher proceeds to remind listeners of how Moses’s life in Scripture testifies to the ability to see God’s movement when we remain still. He also stories lots of other things he noticed when he personally remained still and quiet for stretches of time!
2. In “How Thousands of Sermons Addressed the Crises of 2020,” Kate Shellnutt reports research for Christianity Today on how different pastors spoke of the crises of the year to their congregants, including where different streams of Christianity tended to place their focus. “Most pastors see the purpose of their preaching as proclamation of the gospel above all, but also recognize the opportunity to equip their flock to think biblically about the world around them.” Sadly, the issues are present to all our congregations, and we must continue to speak in such ways that facilitate our growing sensitivity to the needs of the world around us.
3. Attention, the ability to capture and focus it, is among the most valued commodities in today’s world. In a case study for Are.na, “Tenderness Shares A Root With Attention,” Juliana Castro poses, “Can there be a more careful act than that of applying the mind to something?” Specifically those ministries reliant upon the use of words and language, those encapsulating and maximizing the greatest amount of communication possible with each chosen word (preachers, take note) will find Castro’s take refreshing. First seen in Austin Kleon’s weekly newsletter.
4. What follows is tender to me as it pictures many who, as classmates on the campus of African Christian College, poured graduate foundations alongside me. In “Voices only: Hymns and prayers for a troubled Eswatini,” the Christian Chronicle’s Erik Tryggestad journeys the reader/listener through some of the best days of Christians who are currently experiencing the trials of their country’s uprising against their king. I pray that hearing familiar songs sung in cultural tongues will knit our hearts together in compassion and remembrance of one another.
5. Peter W. Marty, editor/publisher of Christian Century writes “Faith is a gift to relax into.” Ultimately, all knowledgeable assent aside, trust is the stuff of our faith. We trust God; we trust the people of God, and we are people who can be trusted. God is the only perfect element in the system, but the rest works out more times than not.
6. Many Christians share a special bond with the island nation of Haiti. They are our family: our brothers, our sisters, our children. In this recent crisis, it’s difficult to know what to do. In “Violent Assassination in Haiti: How Do Country and Church Need to Respond?,” Christianity Today editor Kent Annan interviews “local nonprofit leader Enel Angervil on the current state of the country.” Angervil articulates the seriousness of the situation and the compassionate role the Haitian church desires to play while calling all to prayer afresh. Multiple podcast links within the article offer additional information and perspectives.
7. Erik Tryggestad also reports “Presidential assassination in Haiti fails to stop VBS” in which optometrist Dr. Luckson Previl of Chattanooga, Tennessee – a Haitian native and the current director for See Him Ministries – shares honestly about his frustrations while remaining committed to trusting God. “My bold prayer is for God to raise among the Haitian people a group of leaders that will lead the country toward restoration.” Tryggestad also spoke with Dr. David Vanderpool, founder of Live Beyond, “a church-supported non-governmental organization that provides healthcare and nutrition,” about his view of the continual challenges faced by the nation as a whole and the ministry organizations within. Vanderpool asks people to pray for “the faith and confidence of believers to be strong, the peace of God to permeate Haiti, godly leaders to rise up to bring an end to this turmoil” and for “God to continue to use his church to care for the poor.” Vanderpool reminds, “As Christians, we fear only one thing. We fear God Almighty. With him on our side, what can man do to us?”
8. There’s a growing amount of work being shared on trauma right now, and each one seems to put another piece into the puzzle of understanding what countries, congregations and the individuals within have traveled through in a concentrated and multivalent way in the past year and a half. Catherine Woodiwiss writes “A New Normal: Ten Things I’ve Learned About Trauma” for Sojourners, describing and normalizing the twists and turns we all must pass through when life inevitably hands us the events that usually happen to “other people” and “in other places.”
9. Corella Roberts’s blog post “How to Plant Well in a Spiritual Spring” contains reminders for us all, whether we feel we’ve “missed the planting window,” our gardens are overgrown with “volunteers,” or we’re “yielding fruit in due season” (Ps. 1:3). Roberts notes many activities that can be orienting and grounding in spiritual spring, but places greatest emphasis on simply paying attention to the lessons of the season in which we find ourselves, whatever it may be.
10. And finally, I think Sterling Terrell’s onto something here.
